It has been a month now since my weekend dye workshop, but it’s still worth writing about!

The “100 Colours Plus Dye Class” was sponsored by the Wichita Weavers, Spinners and Dyers’ Guild and taught by Linda Burt of Oklahoma.

Workshop instructior Linda Burt

Several of the 16 or 18 attendees showed up at the very picturesque Stagecoach Ranch near Sedan, Kansas on Friday night and prepared for the workshop to begin on Saturday morning.  I was not one of those – my husband and I drove down Saturday morning, and after dropping me off, he headed out to do a little bass fishing.

Our goal for the weekend

We mostly (depending on various personality types) listened to Linda’s instructions, then got our materials and set to work in pairs to make our quart-jar dyebaths according to the formulas we were assigned.  Each team made a set of 7 dyebaths, soaked the pre-skeined yarn before putting it in the dyebaths, and simmered the jars in waterbath canners.

While waiting, we watched a couple of impromptu demonstrations of crock-pot dyeing and raw-fleece dyeing.

Of course, people brought their own spinning and knitting projects to work on during ‘down time’, and one-on-one lessons and sharing sessions ran rampant throughout the weekend.

As soon as the first set was finished, we rinsed the skeins, spun out the water using salad spinners – I HAD to get one of my own! – hung them to dry and set to work on the second set.  By the end of the day, there were, as promised, over 100 colors of yarn laid out to dry.

The evening’s activities included a front porch performance by a local (and very talented) musician, a wonderful dinner, and a side trip into town to tour a soon-to-be-opened storefront shop offering craft space to co-op members.

Next morning, we set to work cutting our sample skeins into short lengths and attaching them to card stock that had been notebook-punched and preprinted with the dye formulas.

Once the cards had all been organized int their proper order, we took one of each and assembled our take-home notebooks.

Not only did everyone have a great time getting some valuable hands-on experience in dyeing, but these notebooks will be great reference tools for years to come!